Lifestyle Change May Reverse Aging in Cells

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Lifestyle changes may turn back the biological clock, and reverse
aging on a cellular level, new evidence shows.

In a pilot study, researchers found that men who ate a better
diet, exercised moderately and led a less stressful lifestyle
over a few years, had an increase in the length of their
telomeres — the caps at the ends of chromosomes that protect them
from deterioration.

In the study, 10 men were asked to adopt a plant-based diet, do
moderate exercise and stress-reducing activities such as
meditation and yoga. They participated in weekly group meetings,
as a way to promote social support. Another group of 25 men were
not asked to make any changes to their lifestyle, and served as
the control group.

The researchers measured the length of the telomeres in the
participants' white blood cells at the start of the study, and
again after five years.

In the group who made lifestyle changes, telomere length
increased significantly, by an average of 10 percent, but in the
control group, telomere shortened by an average of 3 percent,
according to the study published Monday (Sept. 16) in the journal
Lancet Oncology. [ 7 Ways
the Mind and Body Change With Age ]

Telomeres are often likened to the plastic tips at the end of
shoelaces that keeps them from unraveling. It was recently
discovered that telomeres can lengthen too, and
delay cells' aging.

"A number of studies have shown that as telomeres get shorter,
the risk of premature death — and most chronic disease, from
heart disease to cancer, even dementia — goes up," said study
researcher Dr. Dean Ornish, clinical professor of medicine at the
University of California, San Francisco.

"So as our telomeres get shorter, in a sense, our lives get
shorter," Ornish told LiveScience. "This is the first study
showing that lifestyle changes may actually increase the length
of telomeres."

The discovery of telomere function in cell aging, along with the
enzyme that builds telomeres won the
2009 Nobel Prize in medicine for three scientists, including
Elizabeth Blackburn, also of UCSF, who also worked on the new
study.

Exactly how lifestyle changes may affect telomere length is not
known, the researchers said. Telomere length is controlled by
multiple mechanisms, including the activity of its enzyme,
telomerase. It is thought that higher telomerase activity
increases telomeres length. But the researchers didn't find an
increase in the enzyme in this study, and didn't test for other
possible mechanisms.

All men in the study were diagnosed with
low-risk prostate cancer, and had decided not to undergo
conventional treatments with surgery or radiation. However,
the study was not designed to detect the effects of lifestyle
changes on the participants' prostate cancer, the researchers
said. It is likely that the findings about lifestyle changes
extend to other groups of people as well, they said.

"The implications of these findings in all likelihood extends to
all men, not just those with prostate cancer, as well as to
women," Ornish said.

The results also showed a clear trend: the more positive changes
the participants made to their lifestyles, the greater the
increase in their telomere length.

The number of participants was too small to prove a cause and
effect relationship, the researchers said. However, despite the
small size of the study, the difference between groups was highly
significant, they said.